Gratitude. Our Reflections on What We Learned This Year
Posted by Zach Hochstadt on December 18th, 2013
Posted in Blog, Nonprofit Communications, Storytelling
One of the many benefits of our work is the ongoing opportunity to learn new things from our clients. As the year winds to a close, we’ve taken a few minutes to reflect on what we’ve learned, what inspired us, and what makes us feel grateful.
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[three_fourth_last]Sandra: Throughout this past year, I’ve come to appreciate that child care is ultimately community care. It comes down to a simple and profound equation: good care in early childhood equals better outcomes for a child, better outcomes for his or her parent who can pursue work and self-fulfillment, and better outcomes for that family’s community. Our neighborhood child care centers and preschools are important to all of us, whether or not we’re parents.
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[three_fourth_last]Jennie: Emotions matter. And teaching people—especially kids—how to label and express emotion in a safe, healthy way should be a priority for our society. If everyone learned to understand and regulate their emotions, the world would be a more peaceful and safer place.
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[three_fourth_last]Zach: Over the past year, I’ve been reflecting on what a critical role the arts play in our communities. The arts inspire smart people and creative businesses to concentrate in one place, which promotes economic development. I’ve really been motivated to support arts initiatives where I live because I can see how their mere presence transforms an entire community.
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[three_fourth_last]Jason: There’s a real satisfaction in providing education and easy-to-use tools—we’ve called it the “teaching how to fish” approach—and empowering people to manage things themselves.
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[three_fourth_last]Sarah: I am always delighted to witness the heart our colleagues have for their work. Nowhere is this more tangible to me this year than in the housing sector. The fact that people get up every day and devote their strategic, diplomatic, analytical, budgetary, and humanitarian skills to the pursuit of safe, affordable, and appropriate housing—for others—is profoundly moving.
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[three_fourth_last]Rod: “People that have extra money and want to help people put money in this big pot. People who need money, like us, take a little money out of the pot. As we pay it back, the money goes back in the pot then other people come and take it. They use it for a while, then they put it back and it goes to other people.” – A single mom sharing the concept of community lending with the teen daughter she rescued, fostered, and adopted with the help of an interest free loan. So simple. So inspiring.
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What made you feel grateful this year?
Zach Hochstadt is a Mission Minded Founding Partner and runs Mission Minded’s Denver office, leading the company’s creative teams in the areas of message development, writing, graphic design, and web design and development.
See all posts by Zach Hochstadt
Hi Zach – It’s Maria Stokes from the world of SF ultimate Frisbee. I’ve been working as communications director at Project Open Hand for just over a year, and we’re ready to embark on rebranding our agency. It’s been 10+ years since we last updated our brand identity and standards. I was referred to MissionMinded by someone at Murray Brand Communications, and was delighted to see your smiling face when I clicked through to your blog. Can you suggest the right person for me to contact in SF to get conversations started? Happy New Year!